Stuff

I love the Holidays, but hate how crazy I feel. I keep thinking "why didn't I start this earlier" except that I probably wouldn't have anyway. Much has happened lately and I don't have very many pictures to represent because either 1. someone else was taking pictures and I thought I would just get some from them (which hasn't happened) or 2. T-man left the camera at his grandma's house again :) you always want something more when it's not there. So here is a short list of our going ons:

1. T-man got an internship this summer with American Express in New York City so we will be living there from mid-May to mid-August. We are excited.

2. We found a place to live next semester, it's actually right next to where we lived when we first got married (fun fact). Moving does put a damper on the holiday excitement since it brings much stress with it but it is such a relief.

3. Letty had her first dance recital, it was very cute. She has been a bit shy lately and clingy but did great.

4. Letty and cousin got to go on the "polar express" a very cute 1/2 mile mini train ride where they got to stop at the north pole and visit Santa in his workshop. It then continued, and along the rest of the way were beautiful pictures that depicted Christ's life. It was very fun for her.

5. T-man is done with finals tomorrow and then we are mostly moving out Thursday before we head to see the family for Christmas.

"Santa at the North Pole"

"Polar Express"

Who says girls don't wrestle? I know random picture, oh well.

Ice Skating and Cookies

It was really nice to enjoy a few days off for Thanksgiving, it's such a wonderful holiday! Our family plus T-Mans sister went ice skating the day before Thanksgiving, good times.

We took turns pushing Gracie around on the ice in her stroller until someone told us we couldn't do that. :(

This little piece of plastic kept her entertained for quite a while...


T-Man enjoyed playing with the cones... between that and the stroller we were being rather delinquent!

Letty and Aunt J making funny faces.

We spoke in church on Sunday and to persuade Letty from wanting to go up to the stand with dad I told her we would make Christmas cookies. I think she only wants to make cookies so she can sample dough, yummy!

Feet, Feet and More Feet!

I have three feet stories. The first is a rather sad and a bit traumatic for Letty. On Saturday there was what they call "gifts from the heart exchange", you can take things you want to get rid of and pick up whatever you want. Everything is FREE! So we decided to go and check it out. We get there, Letty finds some friends and then later comes to me with her shoes off (pretty typical). I inquire about them and she points in the direction she left them. It came time to leave and her shoes were no where to be found. It seems someone thought they were a great find and are now enjoying them. It was all very upsetting to her because usually when you take your shoes off someone doesn't run off with them. Luckily we found a pair of shoes that fit so we could leave, since we had planned to run a couple of errands.

Gracie is discovering her feet can be used for more than chew toys.

Here is Letty sporting my shoes. I remember wearing my moms high heels and loving it.

Primary Program

So for our Primary Program today our Letty had a solo part singing the second verse of "I am a Child of God". She got a little stage fright but made it through. I wouldn't have even gone up to the mic at her age. She was pretty wiggly up there but I think it bothered us more than anyone else. We were proud of her.
It's too bad you can't video sacrament meeting.

and the Winner is...

Letty! Just like her dad she is lucky. At our Halloween party they had a "guess the candy jar" game and she told T-man what she wanted to put down. I think he told her to go a little higher after her first guess but left it at that, so 250 pieces of candy later (on top of Halloween candy) YIKES! She was so excited. (I never win anything) some people have all the luck.

Cookies in a pinch

Okay, my friend gave me this really easy pumpkin cookie recipe. It's great if you're in a hurry or you have extra "little" hands helping.

1 spice cake mix
1 15 oz. can of pumpkin
chocolate chips (however much you like.

That's it! You mix it up and bake at 350 for 10-12 min. or so.

The Y

Yesterday we hiked the Y. Sorry Lainey and Fisher we wanted to go with you (we still can) but we saw an opportunity and made a last minute decision to take it. Props to Letty who hiked the whole way up which earned her frozen yogurt afterwards. I carried Kendra up and down so props to me j/k. I realized part way up that T-man wasn't going to carry Letty so we should have switched but oh well, it intensified my workout. The view was beautiful, especially with all of the fall colors. T-man and I realized we had never hiked it since getting married. So here we are over 6 years later doing it as a family. The hike is about 1000 ft up and 2.5 miles round trip. It's really not that bad but kids seem to make a short hike seem like an over nighter :)

BEFORE
DURINGAFTER
Other highlights this week: joining family at Gardner Village and having dinner afterwards. Its fun being close enough to do family home evenings together sometimes.

My Baby's Birthday

Today is my Isaac's Birthday. I can't believe it has already been two years. I spent the day reliving his birthing experience. It's funny as a mom I've also done that on each one of Letty's birthdays. Does everyone do that? It seems natural since you are celebrating their life to reflect on their birth, at least to me. I have just a few precious memories of Isaac in this life so I like to revisit all of them, even though it's painful. I'm not sure exactly what I want to say except that we love and miss him. We decided last year that we would always celebrate his birthday in some way. Letty thought we should wear party hats, I thought that was a bit much so we made cookies instead. I love my sweet Letty who is so tender hearted. While baking she talked about Isaac. It went something like this.

L-I'm thinking about Isaac and that he can hear us right now.
S- I think he can hear us and know that we are celebrating him.
L-I'm wondering what he will look like when he is big like you and daddy.
S- Do you think he looks more like mommy or daddy?
L-I think he looks like daddy.
S- Me too.
L-We should send these cookies up to him.
S-That's a nice idea but I think he'll just have to know we are thinking of him.
L-Okay

She has such a sure and clear perspective. Children are amazing!

Today I wore the necklace I share with him, to have him close to my heart. Bare with me while I share some of my testimony. I feel very strongly that I need to share my feelings about this experience with others or I would be offending my Father in Heaven. I often hear this statement in regards to loosing a child "I don't know how you can do that, I couldn't." I respond with this: "you would be amazed at what you can do that you didn't think you could." I didn't/don't do it alone. I was blessed with strength beyond my own. I love the plan of salvation and happiness. I know my Heavenly Father loves me and that families can be bonded together forever. I know we are sent angles to comfort and lift us. So today and everyday but especially today my thoughts are with my sweet angel baby who awaits us in Heaven. We love you!

Parties

This week was full of school related events. T-man had several interviews and a couple of tests. Having to get a babysitter three times in one week is too many (thank heavens for K-Rae she is a life saver)! Needing babysitters was a result of attending a company reception and two NAC (National Advisory Committee, whose members donate a lot of money to the school) events.

We had a fun weekend by going to a Halloween party accompanied by Pocahontas and "her" pumpkin as Letty informed me. Costumes were easy this year since I bought them last year at a great consignment sale. The hard part was finding them in our boxes but alas, we had success! I did have a little convincing to do. Letty wanted to be a ghost. A thanks goes to my mom who suggested she be Pocahontas, after that she was sold.

Progression

Gracie has started crawling. It is still in the beginning stages but it is a crawl. She is good at a combining things to get where she wants (rolling, sliding, pushing, and sitting) whatever works!

A week and a half ago we headed up to Rexburg since Tim had a little break from school. We met his parents at the river property and had a hot dog roast. It was a little chilly but worth it to be able to enjoy the great outdoors. Letty had a great time learning to skip rocks and hold her own hot dog in the fire.

Grandma helped Letty make yummy pumpkin cookies.
Gracie's new do...littly piggies (Don't mind the extra set in the back).
Just for fun...

As for T-man and I, we are swamped with school activities. I say "we" because the MBASA (spouses association) has tons of activies, more than I can attend. We went on a fun field trip to corn bellies last week (I forgot the camera, I was so ticked!). I also just finished making my freezer meals for a swap we are doing between 10 of us this week. I am going to be making a quilt. I think this is my first traditional quilt. The MBASA is organizing it. The finished product has nine different strips from nine different people. Everyone picks out 6 dark blue fabrics and pieces them together to form a strip and then we will trade. I think it will be really cute and a nice memento. This is the last week of interviews for T-man, YEAH!

Conference Weekend!

We are happy for this time to relax and be spiritually refreshed. The week has been busy for me (T-man is writing this week) which means is has been long for S as well. The MBA program is intense and the 1st semester is the busiest of all. For those who are emphasizing in Strategic HR (such as myself), this is recruiting season for summer internships. About half of my current activities are consumed by job-seeking. This week included two information sessions, five informational interviews (me talking with company employees to get a feel for the company) and a dozen emails.

On Friday I had interviews in Phoenix with Honeywell Corp (they make thermostats, jets, bullet-proof vests, Prestone, and a number of other seemingly unrelated items). We spent Thursday night with Cayenne and Mark and got to see their new home for the first time. They were nice enough to let Letty stayed with them while S, Gracie and I flew to Phoenix. Honeywell Corp was gracious enough to fly us all there. While I interviewed and took a tour of several factories with other job candidates, a local realtor hauled the rest of the family around Phoenix. Kendra was quite a trooper throughout the 6+ hours in the car, not to mention the plane ride. We had an hour break before we went to dinner at the VERY nice home of a BYU alumnus and Senior VP of HR. By the end of the night we were exhausted mentally and physically. We had two early flights which gave us a cumulative of 8 hours of sleep between two days. We were ready and excited to get home to see Letty.


Just a couple of fun pictures that have nothing to do with the topic of the blog:

Laundry fun...

Wedged

Provo Canyon

After completing our chores on Saturday we took a drive up Provo Canyon. We went to Squaw Peak and Bridalveil Falls. It was wonderful to see some awesome fall colors. We were limited on what we could do because Letty was missing a vital part of her outfit... her shoes! Daddy had put the girls in the car, and I didn't think to check for shoes seeing how that is a given but you know daddy's... they get a little distracted sometimes :) I had a good time harassing T-man about it the rest of the trip.

Later in the day we had a little get together. Lainey and her family were here, K-Rae, and Jeniel. We enjoyed dinner together and attending the Relief Society Broadcast. It's been a long time since I've been able to go with family. It was followed by dessert and some game playing. Letty loved having Curly come and play.

Some pictures of our outing:
Squaw Peak




Bridalveil Falls

Letty had a great time playing in the freezing cold water. We didn't realize how cold it was until T-Man had to go in and retrieve her. It was hilarious to see him hoping around trying to hurry out. It reminded me of somone running across hot sand. I would have taken a picture but he had the camera with him (which he says he took on purpose to prevent me snapping any).


While Letty was enjoying herself, well....Gracie thought it was a bit mediocre.


I love my lips, part II. If I love my lips then you will too :)

Just for fun... Trying to kill time until Daddy got home from school. Letty really wanted to take some pictures so here we are.

"Love My Lips"

I love my lips, I love my lips, I loooooove my lips!

Lips, fangs, whatever... Letty loves these wax lips. She had to have the ones with "teeth"

L-"what are those called again?"
S-"fangs"

L- Oh yeah....FANGS! Don't I look scary.

S-Yeah, real scary... :)

I love the conversations I have with her.

On a different note. I just have to say that Gracie and Letty were made to be sisters. They absolutely adore each other. It is such a symbiotic relationship. Letty loves to perform and entertain, and Gracie loves the attention. Gracie laughs harder and longer for Letty than anyone else. I love that they love each other!

You can't tell here but they are having one of their daily laugh sessions.

Gracie loves the grass. I took her out for a bit while I was picking peaches. She was having such a great time I ran in to get my camera.
Classic expression.

Family Fun!

Yesterday we went to the State Fair with Lainey and her family and K-Rae also joined us. Curly and Letty had a great time! They had a fun little farm just for the kids where they could plant "seeds" (wooden coins) and pick ripe vegtables, ride on a tractor (trike), feed and milk a fake cow, brush a fabricated lamb, and buy something with their money at the end. They enjoyed the pony ride and helicopter ride as well. The fair really is over-priced and over-crowded but it was worth it to spend time with family.

Friday was a glorious day where everyone was sleeping at one time. Letty rarely takes naps anymore.

Here is a beautiful sunset we enjoyed a couple of days ago.